Star profile

HIP 72010

3D likeness based on its real data · class K · ~4,200 K

What is HIP 72010

Deep in the southern Centaur burns an orange K-class giant whose amber light took roughly two hundred and ten years to cross the void. When those photons set out, Europe was caught in Napoleonic fever and telescopes were only beginning to chart the southern sky. That same warm ember-glow now finally reaches our retinas — a delayed message from the early nineteenth century.

Where it is and when to see it

HIP 72010 lies in the southern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is May, when it culminates around midnight.

From London it culminates about 3° above the horizon.
From New York it culminates about 14° above the horizon.
From Sydney it culminates about 89° above the horizon.

It can be seen from anywhere south of 55° N.

It ranks no. 24 in brightness among the 174 stars of Centaurus in our catalogue. To find it, start from Rigil Kentaurus, the brightest: it lies about 26° away (a fist at arm's length covers about 10°).

The light you see today left it about 210 years ago.

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Astronomical data for HIP 72010

Constellation: Centaurus
Apparent magnitude: 4.06
Distance: 209.5 light years
Coordinates (J2000): RA 220.914° · Dec -35.174°
Catalogue: HIP 72010 · HD 129456

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Other stars in Centaurus

Centaurus has 174 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.

See all 174 stars in Centaurus